What makes our top achievers in business, sports or music great at what they do? Is it something they’re born with? Is it an overbearing parent pushing them to succeed? Is it hard work? Most of us think that talent is something we’re born with, that you either have it or you don’t. We think that how smart someone is determines their potential. Not so much. Sure, some people have inherited advantages in rare cases, but these advantages being smarter, stronger, taller etc, have little to no relation to how successful someone will be.

Do you strive to get better at what you do? Whether it’s fixing cars, selling shoes or programming computers? Or are you already at your best? Getting better at something you care deeply about is called personal mastery. Peter Senge in his book, The Fifth Discipline says,” Personal mastery goes beyond competence and skills, though it is grounded in competence and skills…

Filling needs that people don’t know they have is hard. Earlier this week I read a blog post that Seth Godin wrote about: Marketing to the bottom of the pyramid. It got me thinking, that that’s what I’m trying to do, fulfill unarticulated needs. Needs that most folks don’t know they have. The average person doesn’t know that they could have a work life that lifts them up and makes them feel great. For that last 100 years we’ve been programmed to believe that work is a necessary evil, that we need to give up 40-60 hour of our week to purgatory, that being happy, fulfilled and engaged at work is more of a fairy tale than a reality.

Psychopathy is a personality disorder characterized by an abnormal lack of empathy combined with strongly amoral conduct, masked by an ability to appear outwardly normal.
In the US, corporations, limited liability corporations, and other types of a business have a clear common goal, to make a profit. That is their primary, and in many cases their sole purpose. While corporations have been assigned many of the rights given to US citizens, such as first and fourteenth amendment rights, they are certainly lacking in empathy and I think it’s fair to say that many corporations act amorally.

Is your IQ fixed? Can anyone learn to play the violin or compete in a triathlon? Is a paticular gift a requirement to learn these things? It turns out that intelligence, sports ablity, music ablity, just about any ability can be learned, according to 25 years of research by Carol Dweck a former Columbia and current Stanford Psychologist.
You are what you think. Perception is reality.

Tony Sheih, CEO of Zappos has just written his first book,’Delivering Happiness, a Path to Profits, Passion and Happiness.’ It chronicles Tony’s life, from childhood entrepreneurial efforts, to college and his time at LinkExchange. In some ways it reads like Ricardo Semler’s’Maverick, The Success Story Behind the World’s Most Unusual Workplace,‘“Both books talk about lessons learned, mistakes made and happy coincidences that lead them to success.

The League of Extraordinary Dancers performance at the February 2010 TED is the most amazing performance I’ve ever seen. Have you ever watched the TED videos? How about the performances? I’ve overlooked the performances until last week. I recently stumbled upon The LXD (League of Extraordinary Dancers) performance at this year’s TED. LXD is an example of taking optimal experience to its outer limits.
These dancers are fully engaged in their art, they have to be extremely dedicated to develop this level of skill.